To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased since deployment of 4G (4th-Generation) communication systems, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5G (5th-Generation) or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called a ‘beyond 4G network’ or a ‘post LTE system’.
The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, the beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, an analog beam forming, large scale antenna techniques are discussed in 5G communication systems.
In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system network improvement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud radio access networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation and the like.
In the 5G system, hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as an advanced access technology have been developed.
Installing multiple small cells is being researched to increase the wireless network capability of a macro cell to respond to soring mobile data traffic.
Small cells with small cell coverage may recycle limited frequency resources and enables a high data rate of data transmission and transmit power savings since small cell base stations are positioned relatively close to users. The nature of the small cell base station having small cell coverage may cause frequent handover and radio link failure. A scheme attracting attention to address such issue is the dual connectivity that may allow a terminal to maintain a connection with the base station of the macro cell while simultaneously receiving data through a small cell link at a high data rate.
Presumably, small cell base stations may suffer from weak security as compared with macro cell base stations. Such assumption comes from the fact that, while macro cell base stations are directly managed by the communication network provider, small cell base stations scattered indoor (or in a home) are confronted with difficulty in physical management for security maintenance.
The dual connectivity may allow a macro cell base station to play a role as an anchor for controlling multiple small cell base stations. Thus, if the security information regarding the macro cell base station is exposed through the small cell base stations, personal information leaks, illegal billing, or other security issues are more likely to happen.
Further, assuming a few tens or a few hundreds of small cells to be installed to increase network cell capacity, control overhead and latency issues may arise due to procedures such as security key request and response ensuing when receiving the respective security keys of the small cells from a higher network (e.g., a mobility management entity (MME)).
Therefore, there is a need for a scheme and procedure for effectively generating and managing an independent security key by a layered network having a macro cell and multiple small cells.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.